Toe-to-Toe: Warhammer Addons

Maybe you're one of those players that don't have any addons installed yet? Well, then we should get you started as addons can really improve your gaming experience. I know some are reluctant to install them, but i always used a ton of addons and as long as you keep track of new versions, it's not a problem at all. Should you not have seen them yet, i keep a list of the addons i have installed in the nav-bar to the right. All of them have screenshots posted at the download location, so i won't bother to post screenshots of those addons but rather entertain you with some random panoramic screenshots.

Before i talk about the addons i use, let me talk you through the process of installing them. If not there already, you need to create a path like C:\Games\Warhammer Online\Interface\Addons\ (depending on where you installed WAR) don't mix it up with the interface folder in your user area, that's not the right one. A really good addon FAQ is at WHA, go read it first. I grab all my addons from curse, so far there are no other addon websites worth mentioning. Warhammer Online stores the settings for addons on an addon version basis, which means you do not have to update them after every patch. Of course when Mythic changed something you'll have to grab the latest version to fix stuff. In general i would advice to check for updates to the addons you use regularly to get bug fixes and improvements. Should you install a new addon version, all settings are gone and you have to set it up again. Usually no big deal, but keep it in mind for addons that work in the background. You can modify lastLoadedVersion (check the FAQ at WHA how to do so) to keep the setting, but only use it if you know it will work. By default Warhammer stores addon settings global for all your chars, if you need to operate with different setups, you can change that by editing ..\user\UserSettings.xml -> save_settings_per_character="false" needs to be changed to true.

What can those addons do for me? Well, I'm glad you asked... Some addons are real timesavers. The one addon I'd say saved me a ton of time is zMailMod, it's a mass mailing addon that will show you the amount of time until all the mails/attachments are send and sends mail after mail by itself. Finally you should be arsed to send those crafting things you vendored before to some guildie. Go and install that one now! The QuickMailTool does help you to empty your mailbox and delete mails, while not working perfect yet (eg. does not take money) it's useful if you watch closely what you're doing. Another good addon is Last Listed which is the only auction house addon i have installed. It will populate the search automaticly depending on the item you want to sell and also remember the price you put it up for. Especially if you're a crafter and try (lets not talk about how the last patch destroyed apothecary income from cores) to sell things this is useful, but also for just selling stuff you found.

The next addons are to customize your UI... Vertigo will enable you to arrange and size your hotbars as you like. You want a three slot mini bar somewhere? no problem. ActionBarColor will color your action buttons red if target is out of range. InfluenceText adds numbers to your influence bar to show how far away from the rewards you are. Does help to keep you sane while grinding influence and you can also click it to go directly to the warstory entry to check the rewards again, dangling in front of your nose.

Talking about items there are two addons i use, first - as there is no item linking yet - the Mostly Harmless Item Linker, generates text with item info so you don't have to type stats if you intend to give away some item to guildies. If you keep different suits of gear ClosetGoblin is for you. This addon will let you manage equipment sets with ease and got a nice UI to do so.

Three more useful addons i use: PlantMe if you're a Cultivator, use this one! Improves the cultivating profession a ton. The addon will provide you with a small window you can use to cultivate seeds & spores and use an included dropdown menu to quickly use additives for the process. You just ckick the tiny squares for each seed slot. Then i also use Chat Alert! to be notified about certain events and chat channels, especially if someone whispers me. The default settings are annoying, but you can turn off all the channels you don't want to hear a sound for messages. Join Selected Scenarios is the new version from Scenario Join All Button, as Mythic implemented a join all button now. But this addon is exactly how Mythic should have implemented it: A small list with available scenarios to check those you want to queue for, sometimes I'm just not up for Tor Anroc but want to queue for all the others.

On a sidenote: I hear good things about Squared (like grid) to use if you're a healer. I don't use it but check it out should you need to heal people.

In addition there are a bunch of tiny helpers that will just change the default view of some window, etc. like GuildDefaultTab (change the default view & sorting from guild window) and NearestOpenGroup (sort open groups after distance, from nearest to farthest). I also want to mention IdentityTheft, a small helper to create "clean" screenshots - it will hide all player/NPC names etc. Great little addon to create good looking screenshots while in combat.

As you can see i did not mention all, but think this should at least give you an idea about what kind of useful addons are out there. Depending on your class there are many more and I'm also watching some very promising beta version, I'm sure I'll add soon to my collection of useful stuff. Don't forget to install LibSlash as its a library for registering slash commands most addons use. If you want to delete an addon, just delete the folder inside the addon path and its gone.

Tip of the Day: You can update or change addons while running WAR, you just have to do a /reloadui afterwards to update your UI.